Licorice Pizza / YMMV

Awesome Music: The trailer for the film makes brilliant use of David Bowie's "Life on Mars?", emanating the movie's 70's setting and even matching certain scenes with the song's lyrics ("The girl with the mousy hair" as the camera cuts to Alana, "Lawmen beating up the wrong guy" as Gary is pinned to a cop car, etc.)
Critical Dissonance: Critics gave it a Rotten Tomatoes score in the low 90s and it was even nominated for three Academy Awards (including Best Picture), while audiences gave it a decent but unexceptional score in the 70s, with more criticism about the lack of a solid narrative and discomfort over its central and illegal Age-Gap Romance.
Crosses the Line Twice: Jon Peters' psychopathic behavior should be frightening, but the way he acts deadly serious despite meaning in such absurdly over the top behavior makes it hilarious.
Ensemble Dark Horse: Despite his scant screentime, Jon Peters has been viewed as a highlight due to Bradley Cooper's exciting turn as the bat shit insane producer.
Esoteric Happy Ending: Gary kissing Alana and her saying she loves him, while seemingly played as a grand romantic resolution, can alternatively be seen as both of them seeking to escape the need to grow up, with some viewers arguing that the age gap in their relationship would create an unhealthily unbalanced power dynamic at best, or that their relationship should be viewed as pedophilia.
Fanon Discontinuity: The ending for some, both because it portrays an illegal Age-Gap Romance as a good thing whilst making it look like our main characters' positive Character Development has regressed due to this conclusion.
Funny Moments:
- Jon Peters' odd behavior, including but not limited to threatening to murder Gary's family if Gary ruins his house when installing a waterbed, bragging about dating Barbra Streisand, and threatening to set a customer at a gas station on fire. And when Gary and Alana finally get away from him, Gary decides to wreck Peters' car in retaliation... only for their truck to run out of gas right that moment, leading Alana to have to manoeuvre a truck backwards down a hill to get away.
- After Alana's boyfriend Lance embarrasses her during a Shabbat dinner with her family by casually admitting that he is an atheist, Alana bluntly asks him to show her his genitals to see if he is circumcised, and when he answers in the affirmative, she angrily yells at him, "You're a fucking Jew!"
He Really Can Act: Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman both made their debuts in this movie (with Haim not having any professional acting experience before this point), but proved more than capable of handling the movie's blend of comedy and emotional intensity. Anderson's frequent collaborator John C. Reilly even described Haim's performance as being compelling in the same way that Joaquin Phoenix was, and both performances have been nominated for a number of awards already.
Memetic Mutation: It's very common to see jokes that Gary eventually grew up to be Philip Seymour Hoffman's iconic Matress Man from Paul Thomas Anderson's previous film Punch-Drunk Love.
No Yay: Many viewers are opposed to a romantic relationship between Gary and Alana which receives a culmination due to the former being a minor and the latter being an adult a full decade older, which - despite the pairing being portrayed positively - would make her guilty of molestation. Some viewers have stated that merely aging Gary up a few years or aging Alana down a bit would've resolved this issue while retaining the main plot points, so it's not clear why they went with such a massive age gap, especially since Alana looks far younger than her actual age.
One-Scene Wonder:
- Jon Peters is bizarre, combative and thoroughly ridiculous in his brief appearance.
- Harriet Sansom Harris as Mary Grady, the agent that Alana and Gary meet whose dry line delivery gets a few laughs.
Mary: You’re a fighter... I can tell.
- Tom Waits only appears for one scene as Rex Blau but he steals the film with his delightful scenery chewing.
The Scrappy: Jerry Frick due to his usage of Asian Speekee Engrish. His behavior is meant to Cross the Line Twice and we're not meant to actually like him, but the joke was still criticized for adding nothing to the film outside of some very uncomfortable Cringe Comedy, which treats a serious topic as a light joke.
Stoic Woobie: Joel Wachs manages to keep his composure over hiding his sexuality far better than his boyfriend Mathew, but his ordeal is still sympathetic nonetheless, especially since the main reason he does so is because letting that info get out would destroy his chances at taking office and achieving his genuinely noble intentions.
Squick: Alana showing Gary her breasts and later kissing and declaring her love for him have gotten this reaction due to her being a full decade older than the fifteen year old.
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Whilst Gary's behaviour is suspect and mostly motivated by both lust and a giant ego, he at least has the excuse of being a kid and tones down his sexual desire after a certain point. Alana is not only an adult that should know better than to be around Gary at all, but she still stays with him and ultimately gives in, crossing the moral line fully. Rather than take the Joel Wachs situation as a way to be honest about not liking Gary romantically, she seems to use this situation as motivation to accept Gary's crush, which will most likely screw him up forever.
The Woobie: Joel Wach's boyfriend Mathew, who clearly loves Joel but is forced to keep their relationship secret due to his lover's political ambitions, which he's incredibly broken up over.

YMMV / Licorice Pizza

Edit Locked